


By the Light of Moon and Stars

by SubtextEquals



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 10:43:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8053282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SubtextEquals/pseuds/SubtextEquals
Summary: Through the years, Sirius and Remus taught each other the impossible: how to love the nightsky.





	By the Light of Moon and Stars

**Author's Note:**

> In celebration of Ali's ([skindyedblue](http://archiveofourown.org/users/skindyedblue/profile)) birthday! A kind person who has inspired fics and, more importantly, people.

Sleep was Remus’s greatest refuge during these nights. But the burning of his muscles and aches in bones soon to crack kept him awake, sleep far too distant to grasp. With the full moon a day away, Remus felt each minute. At eleven, he had many years since the bite to become accustomed to the pain but it had yet to lessen.

For that reason, he heard the rustle of curtains and soft footsteps of one of his dorm mates. Curiosity winning over excruciating monotony, Remus sat up and drew back his own curtains. The mystery dorm mate was Sirius. He knew instantly from the silhouette against the moon and stars. His short, well maintained hair shone in a way impossible for James’s mess to, and the carefully balanced air of fragility and superiority ruled out anyone else. Though few seemed to notice the former. But Remus had seen that same frown in his own pictures too often not to recognize it now.

Sirius looked at him and motioned him over. Why Sirius insisted on befriending Remus, in his tattered old robes, Remus didn’t know. He’d rather hold him at a distance like always, but that look and his persistence proved hard to resist.

He hobbled to Sirius, too tired and sore to alter his gait to something more presentable.

“Can’t sleep?” Sirius whispered when Remus was close enough to lean against the window.

Remus shook his head.

“Want to see something?” Sirius asked.

Remus nodded.

“Sirius pressed his finger against the window pane, tapping it twice before pointing. “See that one? That’s me. Brightest there is.”

Remus didn’t need to follow Sirius’s finger. He knew where the star was. Once you knew where to look, it was difficult not to find. Equally so for the moon.

“Is that why your parents named you after it?” he asked.

Sirius snorted. “No, I’m Sirius the Third. They aren’t that original.”

Remus looked from the star to Sirius. “You don’t miss them?”

Sirius tensed. Arms already folded around his chest, he gripped himself tighter. “Why should I?”

Silence stretched between them.

“Let’s not talk about that,” Sirius said decidedly. “Just look with me?”

Unwilling to risk another nod, Remus said, “of course.”

He still hurt, but it was less noticeable with company.

 

The grand tour of Sirius’s home completed, he took Remus out into the country nearby. The flying motorcycle rested several feet away, forgotten as they lay gazing at the stars.

“You really are free now, aren’t you?” Remus commented. Side by side with Sirius, his fingers drifted closer to his.

“I have been for two years.” A lazy grin formed across Sirius’s face. “But now I can do what I want.”

Remus laughed. “Didn’t you do that at school?”

Sirius covered Remus’s hand with his own. “Not everything.”

Both Remus’s hand and face flushed with warmth. He smiled, as usual unable to match Sirius’s enthusiasm but no less genuine in his own feelings.

Sirius sighed, tilting his head back against the ground. “I love this.”

“Getting dirt in your hair?” Remus teased. He squeezed Sirius’s hand.

Sirius squeezed back even harder. “Stargazing with you. Making the demons ours.”

Remus had a response for that. Many. But none that he needed to voice.

Sirius’s thumb drifted to run across the inside of Remus’s wrist.

“What is it you wanted to do before?” Remus looked at Sirius. The moonlight shone across his face, casting the side of his face in shadow as he turned to look into Remus’s eyes.

He rolled onto his side and cupped Remus’s chin in his free hand, his other still laced with Remus’s.

Remus parted his lips before Sirius pressed his own to them. The stars hovered above them still, as forgotten as the motorcycle.

 

After years of sleeping on his own, not to mention the weeks he’d spent with werewolves before tonight, Remus didn’t immediately register that Sirius wasn’t in bed. He pushed himself up, blinking, too tired for panic to set in. Besides, Sirius wouldn’t leave him. Not again and not just after coming back.

“It’s not morning yet,” Sirius said before Remus’s eyes found him.

With no moon in the sky, only the stars illuminated Sirius. In the dim light, his skin looked smooth where wrinkles were and the gauntness of his cheeks hidden. He was pale, beautiful, and resembled his 21 year old self more than could have been hoped. Remus felt both a pang in his heart and a rush of gratitude at the sight.

“And you’re up,” Remus said.

“I haven’t been running with werewolves.”

Remus stood. Sirius held out his hand. A moment later Remus took it. Sirius wrapped his arms around Remus’s waist and pulled him flush against his body. They stood watching the stars together.

“Is this how you’ve spent your nights?” Remus asked.

Sirius pressed a kiss to Remus’s neck. “Yeah. We always did before.”

Remus lay his hands over Sirius’s arms. “We did.”

“I always thought of you,” Sirius said. His voice was distant, the way he sounded when darker memories crept back into his mind.

“So did I,” Remus whispered. One star in particular caught his eye. “It’s not full moon, but do you want to run with one werewolf again tonight?”

Sirius snorted. He nuzzled Remus’s head. “You want me to chase you around the house? We’ll wake the portraits,” he teased.

“Not what I meant, but we can try that later.” Remus smiled.

Sirius grinned, winding his arms tighter around Remus, then drawing back and turning Remus to look at him. He tilted his head as he looked at him cautiously, hope taking longer to come to him. “What did you mean?”

“Prefect Lupin can get you into trouble just this once.”

Half an hour and one apparation later, Remus lay on the grass in a field far away from London. Sirius licked his face and pressed a paw to his arm.

“Behave, Padfoot,” Remus chided, leaving harsher thoughts to himself for allowing this.

Thoughts that faded as Sirius curled his canine body against him and whined.

“There you are.” Remus pointed at Sirius’s namesake. He sighed, lips curved into a small smile. His gaze drifted to a far closer light. It rested there for some time. “Only you could make me love the moon,” he finally said.

Sirius’s body shifted in a moment. He traced his finger along Remus’s neck, his eyes fixed on a being grounded to earth.

“Only you could make me love the stars.”


End file.
